Recordings & Info 170. The Death of Queen Jane
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 77: The Death of Queen Jane (79 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Queen Jane
Queen Jane is a Neighbor
King Henry
Queen Sally
Traditional Ballad Index: Death of Queen Jane, The [Child 170]
DESCRIPTION: Queen Jane has hard labor. She begs her attendants to remove her baby surgically. They call King Henry; he will not permit the operation. Queen Jane falls unconscious; the baby is delivered but she dies. King, baby, and court mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: royalty pregnancy death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1536 - Execution of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn. His marriage to Jane Seymour (one of Anne's women in waiting) follows swiftly
Oct 12, 1537 - Birth of the future Edward VI
Oct 24, 1537 - Death of Jane Seymour
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (17 citations)
Child 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (9 texts)
Bronson 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (10 versions)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 466, "The Death of Queen Jane" (brief notes only)
Davis-Ballads 35, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 254-255, "Queen Jane" (1 text, the Lunsford version which has no true plot; tune on pp. 422-423) {Bronson's #7}
Leach, pp. 478-480, "The Death of Queen Jane" (4 texts)
Friedman, p. 285, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
SharpAp 32, "The Death of Queen Jane" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #4, #5}
Sharp-100E 29, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Niles 50, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 21, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 31, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
GreigDuncan3 693, "Queen Jean" (2 texts)
DBuchan 52, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 56-57, "Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Silber-FSWB, p. 212, "Queen Jane" (1 text)
DT 170, QUENJANE* QUENJAN2*
Roud #77
RECORDINGS:
Douglas Kennedy, "The Death of Queen Jane" (on FieldTrip1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Death of Queen Jane" (on BLLunsford01; a lyric fragment in which everyone comes to Jane and says simply, "The red rose of England shall flourish no more.") (on BLLunsford02) {Bronson's #7}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Six Dukes Went A-Fishing" (lyrics)
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd reports,] "We do not know how old this ballad is, nor if it derives from a piece called "The Lamentation of Queen Jane", licensed for publication in 1560."
This ballad is also, as "Dronning Dagmar (Queen Dagmar)," found in Danish tradition. - PJS
If actually the same song, the Danish version would appear to be much older; the most famous Dagmar in Danish history was the daughter of Ottocar I of Bohemia and the wife of Valdemar II (c. 1170-1241; reigned 1202-1241; the name of the Danish king in "Dronning Dagmar" is in fact Valdemar). They were married in 1205; she died in 1212 (so Birch, p. 63; I've seen online sources which say 1215-1222), leaving a son who, in an interesting coincidence, predeceased his father (the victim of a shooting accident, according to Birch, p. 67), meaning that the Danish throne went to younger half-brothers, beginning with Eric, co-King with his father from 1232. - RBW
Re "Queen Dagmar's Death" translated in R.C. Alexander Prior _Ancient Danish Ballads_ (1860), Vol. II, No. LXII, pp. 136-140: "Dagmar, the first wife of King Waldmar the second, died at Ribe in the year 1212, and is buried at Ringsted by the side of her husband." The plot is very close to "The Death of Queen Jane." However, the king reaches her side after she has died. The king asks that everyone pray that he be allowed to hear her wishes. The Queen wakes, asks that all prisoners be released, that Berngerd [Berengaria] not be taken as a wife, and that her youngest son Knud be heir to the crown. Finally, she explains the reason for her death and damnation: "Had I on a Sunday not laced my sleeves, Or border upon them sewn, No pangs had I felt by day or night, Or torture of hell-fire known." She returns to death. - BS
Note therefore the (minor) differences between the songs: Valdemar arrives at his wife's bedside only after she dies, and she attributes her death to dressing too gaily on a Sunday. She also speaks after death; I know of no supernatural versions of "Queen Jane." Still, it's noteworthy that "Queen Jane's" plot, where it differs from the facts, always differs in a way that brings it closer to "Dronning Dagmar." - (RBW, PJS, BS)
Of all the strange events in the history of Henry VIII, his romance with Jane Seymour may be the strangest.
Henry had not initially expected to succeed his father Henry VII. There was an older brother, Arthur, who had been groomed for the throne and had married Catherine, princess of Aragon. But Henry VII's children seemed cursed -- four of eight died very young, and then, in 1502, Arthur died also (Ashley, pp. 630-631). The only surviving boy, Henry, became heir to his father -- and to Catherine of Aragon. Nor was Catherine the only legacy from his relatives: Henry also inherited, in different form, the suspicions and power-hungriness of his usurping father.
And he also inherited that bad genes that went back to the mad king Charles VI of France, whose daughter Catherine had been Henry VII's grandmother. There is no reason to think Catherine of Aragon was infertile -- her sisters generally had no problems with child-bearing. But Catherine's many pregnancies mostly ended in miscarriages or in the birth of children who died very young; only one girl, Mary, survived infancy. By 1526, Henry was sure that Catherine of Aragon (who was 40 years old, six years older than her husband) would not give him a son (Ashley, p. 632). And, in this period, he also became interested in Anne Boleyn -- who, however, refused his advances unless she could marry him.
You know the rest; Henry couldn't get a divorce from Rome, so he founded his own church, divorced Catherine, disinherited Mary (Scarisbrick pp. 351-352, notes how the poor girl was forced to give up her claim to the throne, her legitimacy, and even her religion; he suggests she might have been executed had she not given in), married Anne -- and found that the whole cycle started again. There was one healthy child, Elizabeth, born 1533. But there were also three miscarriages (Lofts-Anne, p. 124), and no son.
And then Jane Seymour caught his eye. Hers was not a very exalted family, but sufficiently notable that Jane had been a lady in waiting first to Catherine of Aragon and then to Anne (Ives, p. 292).
Soon after the birth of Elizabeth, Henry VIII's roving eye seems to have started roving again. Scarisbrick, p. 348, thinks he noticed Jane Seymour in mid-1534, and stories began to circulate about them later in that year. Ives, pp. 292-293, however, thinks he only became serious about Jane in January 1536. But most sources I checked think he began courting her some time in 1535.
It was rather surprising -- no one then or now seems to have regarded Jane as particularly beautiful. Lofts-Anne, p. 136, says, "[u]nless her portrait maligns her vilely, she may have been the original Plain Jane"; Loach, p. 2, refers to a "pale and puffy" appearance. The imperial ambassador said "nobody thinks she has much beauty. Her complexion is so whitish that she may be called rather pale. She is a little over 25... not very intelligent, and is said to be rather haughty" (Ives, p. 302)
But Anne Boleyn hadn't been considered a great beauty, either (although certainly prettier than Jane); Henry VIII seems to have wanted something other than conventional good looks. The odd thing was Jane's age -- we don't know it exactly, but Lofts-Queens, p. 99, claims she was fully 33 at the time her son was born. This is almost certainly high, but Ashley, p. 630, gives her birth date as c. 1508, making her 29, OxfordCompanion, p. 539, says she was born c. 1509, making her 28. (One suspects her late marriage is additional evidence of her lack of looks.)
Ives, p. 302, hints that Henry was attracted by Jane as a sort of anti-Anne -- she was "fair, not dark... gentle rather than abrasive; of no great-wit, against a mistress of repartee; a model of self-effacement, against a self-made woman."
By then, Anne seems to have been living on sufferance. Henry -- who had been so ardent as long as she had refused to share his bed -- no longer loved her, and apparently was spending just enough time with her to try for another child. Anne did become pregnant in late 1535 -- but had another miscarriage in early 1536. (If Henry had been rational, this should have proved to him that Anne was being faithful, because he was the one with the genetic defects. But Henry was not rational.)
The miscarriage came shortly after Henry took a fall which caused great fears for his health (Scarisbrick, p. 348). More than ever, Henry wanted a son -- and that, in his warped mind, meant another wife (he actually considered his failure to beget a son to be evidence that God disapproved of his marriages). In an additional convenience, Catherine of Aragon had died in early 1536 (OxfordCompanion, p. 175), so if Anne could be set aside, further marriages would be free of doubt. And Anne could easily be eliminated, because -- unlike Catherine -- she was not popular; the people resented her replacement of the much-loved Catherine.
There was, in fact, a song written about this business, which cast Henry to scorn and caused Jane some pain. Henry vowed to "straitly punish" the author, but never managed to catch him (Ives, p. 305). This song does not appear to have gone into tradition.
Henry had Anne and a handful of others accused of adultery and other crimes -- some merely unlikely, some, such as of engaging in incest with her brother (Lofts-Anne, p. 158), absurd. Her brother's chief crime seems to have been saying aloud that Henry might be impotent (Lofts-Anne, pp. 159-160). Henry and Cromwell arranged a kangaroo trial (there were no witnesses, according to Lofts, p. 160, and no impartial judges, either), and executed her on May 19 (the execution had to be hasty, because, apparently, the false conviction earned her sympathy for the first time in her career. The only hint of mercy, according to Lofts-Anne, p. 168, was that she was beheaded rather than being drawn and quartered, the normal sentence for treason -- and adultery by the Queen was called treason. The crown did try to keep things relatively quiet -- Anne was executed on a low scaffold, and the execution was postponed from May 18 to May 19 in hopes of causing spectators to go home (Lofts-Anne, p. 171)
That day, Archbishop Cranmer issued a dispensation allowing Henry to marry Jane Seymour (who was distantly related). They became engaged the next day, and married on May 30 (Scarisbrick, p. 350). She became pregnant about half a year later -- a pregnancy which would result in her death.
There are surprisingly many stories about the death of Jane Seymour -- that she died in childbirth, or due to the after-effects of a Caesarean operation. Our information is sadly conflicting.
It does seem certain that Jane Seymour went into labor on October 11, 1537. The future Edward VI was born early on October 12. Jane died twelve days later.
The story that Henry was told at the time that "one of the two must die" is very early, apparently first found in 1538, with a variant, that the prince would be "as great a murderer as his father," apparently being known in 1539. Apparently some of this was used as Catholic propaganda. And Scarisbrick, p. 353, says that "At Hampton Court, on 12 October 1537, Queen Jane was delivered by Caesarean section of a son, christened Edward shortly afterward -- just ten years since Henry first set out on the task of getting rid of Catherine to save his dynasty.
But Loach, pp. 4-5, notes that, while the Caesarean operation was known at the time, it was a course of desperation and usually killed the mother. Jane did live twelve days, and at first was well enough to see her child. She therefore thinks it unlikely that surgery was involved in Edward VI's birth.
Loach on p. 7 considers and rejects the suggestion of puerperal fever (caused presumably by the dirty hands of doctors), which Lofts-Anne, p. 156, considers the cause of death. On p. 6 Loach notes the activities Jane was able to engage in immediately after the birth. It was not until October 23 that she became ill. She died "during the night of Wednesday, 24 October." Even then, no fever was reported -- but heavy bleeding was. Loach's speculation is that the incompetent doctors did not fully remove the placenta, and it haemorrhaged.
Her funeral took place on November 12, and she was buried the next day (Loach, p. 7).
The statement about "fiddling and dancing" at the baby's birth are likely enough; Henry VIII was himself a good musician, and exceptionally fond of music and dance; Williams, p. 14, notes that Henry's father Henry VII had been indifferent to music and celebration (or almost anything in life except money and power), and had kept only a very small musical establishment, and observes on pp. 36-37 that when Henry VIII succeeded, he immediately enlarged his staff of minstrels and musicians.
The mention of Henry wearing mourning for Jane is true and quite interesting, because he had blatantly refused to wear mourning when Catherine of Aragon died; indeed, he forbade others from dressing in mourning (Lofts-Anne, p. 139). And, of course, he completely refused to mourn for Anne (hardly surprising, since to do so would be, in effect, to admit that she was innocent and that he had had her judicially murdered).
When Henry died, he ordered that he be buried next to Jane (Skidmore, p. 1). Of course, of the other five wives, one was still alive, two he had divorced, and two he had executed; Jane was the only dead one with whom he had not had some sort of fight. The decision was probably by process of elimination in more senses than one.
Incidentally, Jane Seymour's ghost is alleged to still appear at Hampton Castle, one of Henry VIII's primary residences and the place where Jane died. The other side of the coin is, the place is alleged to have quite a few ghosts, very many of whom have been explicitly identified with one or another historical person. One can't help but wonder if the real explanation isn't someone (perhaps in a tourism office) with an overactive imagination.... - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ashley: Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1998)
Birch: J. H. S. Birch, _Denmark in History_, John Murray, 1938
Ives: Eric Ives, _The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn_, Blackwell Publishing, 2004 (I use the 2005 paperback edition)
Loach: Jennifer Loach (edited by George Bernard and Penry Williams), _Edward VI_ (one of the Yale English Monarchs series), Yale, 1999 (I use the 2002 paperback edition)
Lofts-Anne: Norah Lofts, _Anne Boleyn_, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1979
Lofts-Queens: Norah Lofts, _Queens of England_, Doubleday, 1977
OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, _The Oxford Companion to British History_, Oxford, 1997
Scarisbrick: J. J. Scarisbrick, _Henry VIII_, University of California Press, 1968
Skidmore: Chris Skidmore, _Edward VI_, St. Martin's Press, 2007
Williams: Neville Williams: _Henry VIII and His Court_, Macmillan, 1971
Child Collection Index- Child Ballad 170: The Death of Queen Jane
Child No.---Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have Rec.
170 Alfred Deller King Henry The Three Ravens - Elizabethan Folk and Minstrels Songs 1994 2:43 Yes
170 Alfred Deller King Henry The Three Ravens - Elizabethan Folk and Minstrels Songs 2003 2:44 Yes
170 Andreas Scholl King Henry English Folksongs & Lute Songs 1996 3:13 Yes
170 Andreas Scholl King Henry The Essential Andreas Scholl 2006 No
170 Andrew Rowan Summers The Death of Queen Jane Andrew Rowan Summers 1957 3:34 Yes
170 Anne Price The Death of Queen Jane Very Early Anne - Live at Hunter College in the Bronx 1965 – 1966 2009 No
170 Bascom Lamar Lunsford Death of Queen Jane Folk Music of the United States - Anglo-American Songs and Ballads (4) 1959 1:19 Yes
170 Bascom Lamar Lunsford Death of Queen Jane Ballads, Banjo Tunes and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina 1996 1:38 Yes
170 Bascom Lamar Lunsford The Death of Queen Jane The Library of Congress No
170 Bascom Lamar Lunsford The Death of Queen Jane Smoky Mt. Ballads 1953 2:28 Yes
170 Bascom Lamar Lunsford The Death of Queen Jane Songs from the Heart - The History of American Folk Music 2001 1:36 Yes
170 Birgitte Grimstad Dronning Dagmars Død Ord Over Grind, 51 Beste 1966-1994 1994 No
170 Birgitte Grimstad Dronning Dagmars Død Synger Viser 1966 6:00 Yes
170 Bragod Queen Jane Kaingk 2004 7:37 Yes
170 Cammi Vaughan The Death of Queen Jane Lass of Roch Royal 2005 No
170 Carol Noonan Band Queen Jane The Only Witness 1997 6:16 Yes
170 Cath & Phil Tyler Death of Queen Jane Dumb Supper 2008 3:25 Yes
170 Cath & Phil Tyler Queen Sally Dumb Supper 2008 3:16 Yes
170 Ceoltoiri Death of Queen Jane Silver Apples of the Moon 1992 4:54 Yes
170 Charlie Hill Death of Queen Jane The Gwilym Davies Collection No
170 Custer LaRue & The Baltimore Consort Queen Jane Custer LaRue Sings The Daemon Lover - Traditional Ballads & Songs of England, Scotland & America 1993 5:42 Yes
170 Cyril Tawney Queen Jane The Outlandish Knight 1969 3:25 Yes
170 Dave & Toni Arthur The Death of Queen Jane Morning Stands on Tiptoe 1997 2:44 Yes
170 Douglas Kennedy The Death of Queen Jane Field Trip - England 1959 2:56 Yes
170 Duncan Williamson Queen Jane Travellers' Tales Vol 2 - Songs, Stories & Ballads from Scottish Travellers 2005 No
170 Eddie Upton Death of Queen Jane Songs of Somerset Folk 1998 2:59 Yes
170 Edward Flower & Joel Brown The Death of Queen Jane Chords & Thyme - English Folksongs for Guitar 1994 4:48 Yes
170 Eric & Martha Nagler Queen Jane The Gentleness in Living 1973 6:25 Yes
170 Ewan MacColl Queen Jane [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 1:06 Yes
170 Ewan MacColl Six Lords Went A-Hunting [English] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:16 Yes
170 Ewan MacColl The Death of Queen Jane [English] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 2:32 Yes
170 Helen Bonchek Schneyer Queen Jane Somber, Sacred and Silly 1992 No
170 Helen Schneyer Queen Jane What a Singing There Will Be 2005 No
170 Ian Bostridge The Death of Queen Jane The English Songbook 1999 2:52 Yes
170 Isla Cameron Queen Jane The Best of Isla Cameron 1962 3:01 >Yes
170 Isla St. Clair Queen Jane Royal Lovers & Scandals 2000 2:47 Yes
170 Isla St. Clair Queen Jane Great Songs and Ballads of Scotland 2009 No
170 Jeff Moore The Death of Queen Jane + An Air for Henry The Dove's Perch 2006 6:31 Yes
170 Jem Moore & Ariane Lydon Death of Queen Jane Along Quiet Lines 1995 3:08 Yes
170 Jem Moore & Ariane Lydon Death of Queen Jane Women of Ireland 1997 No
170 Jess & Richard Arrowsmith The Death of Queen Jane Customs & Exercise 2012 No
170 Joan Baez The Death of Queen Jane The Lovesong Album 1975 3:48 Yes
170 Joan Baez The Death of Queen Jane It Ain't Me Babe, Vol 2 1995 3:51 Yes
170 Joan Baez The Death of Queen Jane Joan Baez/5 2002 3:51 Yes
170 Joan Baez The Death of Queen Jane Diamonds - The Best of Vanguard Years 1992 3:51 Yes
170 Joan Sprung The Death of Queen Jane Pictures to My Mind 1980 4:40 Yes
170 John Jacob Niles The Death of Queen Jane The Ballads of John Jacob Niles 1960 1:58 Yes
170 John Jacob Niles The Death of Queen Jane John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs 1956 2:44 Yes
170 John Jacob Niles The Death of Queen Jane Folk Roots - The Sound of Americana 2007 2:04 Yes
170 Jon Boden The Death of Queen Jane A Folk Song a Day - October 2010 3:37 Yes
170 Karine Polwart The Death of Queen Jane Fairest Floo'er 2007 3:46 Yes
170 Kempion Death of Queen Jane Kempion 1977 4:37 Yes
170 Lionel Long Queen Jane Troubadour [Folk Songs of the British Isles] 1965 2:33 Yes
170 Loreena McKennitt The Death of Queen Jane The Wind That Shakes the Barley [McKennitt] 2010 6:06 Yes
170 Macalla Queen Jane Musique Irlandaise 2009 3:15 Yes
170 Marcoacca The Death of Queen Jane <website> 2008- 4:20 Yes
170 Margaret Nelson & Phil Cooper Death of Queen Jane These Bones 2007 3:21 Yes
170 Maria Doyle Kennedy Death of Queen Jane Skullcover 2008 No
170 Mark Evans The Death of Queen Jane A Rival Heart - Traditional Songs and Music of Ireland and Britain 2003 3:24 Yes
170 Martin Best & Edward Flower Death of Queen Jane The Art of the Minstrel - Lute Songs 1972 No
170 Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick Death of Queen Jane Straws in the Wind 2006 4:29 Yes
170 Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick The Death of Queen Jane Live at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 29th September 2011 2011 5:28 Yes
170 Martin Graebe Queen Jane Songs from the Golden Fleece - a Song Tradition Today 2005 No
170 Méav The Death of Queen Jane Méav 1999 5:44 Yes
170 Megan McInnis & Chris Chapman Queen Jane The Demon Lover 1997 No
170 Mike (Ichingiching) The Death of Queen Jane <website> 2007 4:58 Yes
170 Miss Nellie Galt Jane Was a Neighbor The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection No
170 Moira Smiley Queen Jane Rua 2006 3:11 Yes
170 Naomi Bedford The Death of Queen Jane fRoots 36 2011 3:45 Yes
170 Naomi Bedford The Death of Queen Jane Tales from the Weeping Willow - Songs of Murder, Death and Sorrow 2011 3:47 Yes
170 Nellie Galt Jane Was a Neighbor The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection No
170 Paul Gwynne Phillips Queen Jane Folk Songs and Ballads of the British Isles 1964 7:35 Yes
170 Peggy Seeger Jane Was a Neighbour [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 2:34 Yes
170 Peggy Seeger Poor Sally [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:02 Yes
170 Peggy Seeger Queen Jane [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 4:45 Yes
170 Peggy Seeger The Death of Queen Jane A Song for You and Me 1960 4:57 Yes
170 Peggy Seeger Two Dukes [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 1:30 Yes
170 Peter Johnson & Friends Death of Queen Jane Newport's Fair Town - Traditional Songs and Ballads from North America 2007 No
170 Phil Edwards Queen Jane 52 Folk Songs - Orange 2012 3:26 Yes
170 Phønix Dronning Dagmar Pigen & Drengen (The Girl and the Boy) 2002 4:20 Yes
170 Raven The Death of Queen Jane Indoor Driving 2000 5:49 Yes
170 Ray Driscoll Death of Queen Jane (1) The Gwilym Davies Collection No
170 Ray Driscoll Death of Queen Jane (2) The Gwilym Davies Collection No
170 Ray Driscoll The Death of Queen Jane The Gwilym Davies Collection No
170 Ray Driscoll The Death of Queen Jane Wild, Wild Berry - The Songs of Ray Driscoll 2008 No
170 Raymond Crooke The Death of Queen Jane <website> 2007 5:37 Yes
170 Rebecca Barclay Queen Jane Cinnabar 2012 No
170 Ron Coe The Death of Queen Jane Folk Songs from Hampshire and Dorset 2005 No
170 Sheena Wellington The Death of Queen Jane Kerelaw 1986 3:29 Yes
170 The Bothy Band The Death of Queen Jane The Best of the Bothy Band 1988 4:40 Yes
170 The Bothy Band The Death of Queen Jane After Hours (Recorded Live in Paris) 1984 4:46 Yes
170 Toronto Children's Chorus Queen Jane A Song for All Seasons 2004 5:56 Yes
170 Trian The Death of Queen Jane Songs from the Heart - a Collection of Irish Ballads 1997 5:13 Yes
170 Trian The Death of Queen Jane Trian II 1995 5:11 Yes
170 Unidentified Singer Jane Was a Neighbor The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection No
170 Veslemøy Solberg Dronning Dagmars Død The Strength of the Runes 1996 5:13 Yes
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
170. THE DEATH OF QUEEN JANE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me 466 (trace) / BFSSNE, II, 6 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 419 / Flanders, Vt F-S Bids, 219 / Niles, Anglo-Am Bid Stdy Bk 24 / Niles, Bids Lv Sgs Tgc Lgds, 16 / Scarborough, Sgctcbr So Mts, 254 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 230.
Local Titles: The Death of Queen Jane.
Story Types: A: Queen Jane is in labor for more than six weeks. She tells the doctors to cut her open and save the baby. However, King Henry refuses to sacrifice her for the child. She dies, and the baby is saved, regardless. The funeral takes place, and the baby is christened.
Examples: Niles, Bids Lv Sgs Tgc Lgds; SharpK (A, B).
B : The story is similar to that of Type A. However, Queen Jane has become "a neighbor", and she calls for her father and mother before she calls for King Henry. Examples: BFSSNE, II, 6.
C: A lyric on the theme of Queen Jane's labor survives from the ballad and contains repeated comments by her mother, her father, and Prince Henry that "the Red Rose of England shall flourish no more".
Examples: Scarborough.
D: Sally is taken sick and goes to bed. King Henry is sent for. Then the "Are you the doctor?" lines from the American Brown Girl (Child 295) enters (see Child lyoB), as does the gloating over the dying girl by the jilted lover. Sally's presentation of the ring and her death follow. Examples: Davis, p. 420; SharpK, p. 303.
Discussion: The full ballad is a threnody on the death of Jane Seymour, who succumbed twelve days after the birth of Prince Edward, October 12, 1537. The Queen is ill, begs for surgery to save her unborn (in the ballad) child. See Child, III, 3723. King Henry refuses to sacrifice the mother for the child. An operation becomes necessary, and the boy lives through it, while the mother dies. The jubilation over the birth is lost in lamentation.
The Type A version follows this story rather closely. Type B is probably from a broadside (see BFSSNE, II, 7) and shows a variation from "in labor" to "a neighbor" that might eventually change the details of the story. The refrain has become "the red roads of England shall flourish no more". It should also be noted that Henry does not enter the song until the eighth of ten stanzas. If a singer were to forget the last three stanzas a new story would exist. For a comparison of this version to Child A, E, H, and I see BFSSNE, II, 7.
The Type C text is rather beautiful, but it needs little explanation. It is the result of a common American ballad tendency. The Type D stories, however, reveal the growth of a new ballad from the merger of two older ones. The entrance of the doctor into a dying woman's room has been sufficient to switch the story into the American Brown Girl and to change the Queen's name to Sally, although the "black and yellow" funeral stanzas are retained at the end. The result appears to be a counterpart of Barbara Allen with the sexes reversed. See Davis, Trd Bid Va 419.
Flanders, FtF-S lds, 219 prints a song called Two Dukes which contains the first two lines of Stanza 5 and the last two lines of Stanza 6 (the funeral description) of Child 170. It is given as a version of The Death of Queen Jane, but it seems to me to be The Duke of Bedford which has been corrupted by Child 170. See also BFSSNE, II, 7.
Folk Index: Death of Queen Jane [Ch 170/Sh 32]
Rt - Queen Sally
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p285 [1850s]
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 9, p14 (1967) (Queen Jane)
Wells, Evelyn Kendrick (ed.) / The Ballad Tree, Ronald, Bk (1950), p 47
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), P474
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p476
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p479 (Jane Was a Neighbor)
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p480
Baez, Joan. Joan Baez 5, Vanguard VSD7 9160, LP (1964), trk# A.04
Brown, Wilfred. Folk Songs, L'Oiseau-Lyre SOL 60034, LP (1961), trk# A.02
Carthy, Martin; and Dave Swarbrick. Straws in the Wind, Topic TSCD 556, CD (2006), trk# 1
Dunagan, Margaret. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p231/# 32B [1917/10/12]
Holcolm, Beth. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p273/N 50 [1932/07]
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Anglo-American Songs and Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L21, LP (196?), trk# B.06 [1946/09]
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Smokey Mountain Ballads, Folkways FP 40/2040, LP (1953), trk# 7
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Abrahams, Roger; & George Foss / Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 3.10 [1937] (Queen Jane)
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p254,422 [1935/03] (Queen Jane)
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40082, CD (Smi1), trk# 16 [1949/03/25]
Nagler, Eric & Martha. Gentleness in Living, Philo 1010, LP (1973), trk# B.04b (Queen Jane)
Russell, Mrs.. Williams, R. Vaughan; & A. L. Lloyd (eds.) / Penguin Book of English Fol, Penguin, Sof (1959), p 31 [1907]
Schneyer, Helen Bonchek. Somber, Sacred and Silly, Straight Arrow SAR 9104, Cas (1992), trk# A.07 (Queen Jane)
Sprung, Joan. Pictures to My Mind, Folk Legacy FSI 073, LP (1980), trk# A.02
Summers, Andrew Rowan. Andrew Rowan Summers, Folkways FA 2348, LP (1957), trk# A.02
Thomas, Kate. Sharp, Cecil & Maude Karpeles (eds.) / Eighty English Folk Songs from th, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 45 [1917ca]
Thomas, Kate. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p230/# 32A [1917/09/06]
Queen Sally
Rt - Death of Queen Jane ; Poor Sally
Sturgill, Archie. Close to Home, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40097, CD (1997), trk# 33 [1967/01]
Mainly Norfolk: The Death of Queen Jane
[Roud 77; Child 170; Ballad Index C170; words trad.; music of some versions by Dáithí Sproule]
F. J. Child catalogued the ballad The Death of Queen Jane as #170, and he included both English and Scottish versions. It was also printed in Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd's Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.
Cyril Tawney sang Queen Jane in 1969 on his Polydor album The Outlandish Knight: Traditional Ballads from Devon and Cornwall. His liner notes commented:
Collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould from Samuel Font, Blackdown, Mary Tavy, Devon, March 1893. No text of this is preserved in Baring-Gould's manuscripts, and had he not sent it to Professor Child for publication in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Font's words would have been completely lost. According to history the birth of King Henry the Eighth's son Prince Edward (later Edward the Sixth) on October 12, 1537 was a natural one although his mother, Jane Seymour, died twelve days later. There was a strong rumour at the time, however, that it had been found necessary to cut the baby out of its mother's side and that Queen Jane died as a consequence. The traditional ballad, very popular in Scotland as well as Devon, Somerset and Dorset, supports the legend.
Dave and Toni Arthur sang The Death of Queen Jane in 1969 on their Topic album The Lark in the Morning. Their sleeve notes comment:
On October 12, 1537, Jane Seymour presented Henry VIII with a son, later to become Edward VI. The birth was quite natural, but through bad nursing the Queen died twelve days later. Ballad writers of the day, obviously more concerned with drama than fact, ascribed her death to a Caesarean operation. This myth was perpetuated in the Charles Laughton film The Private Life of Henry the Eight.
The earliest record of the song seems to be the broadside, The Lamentation of Queen Jane, licensed in 1560. Francis Child printed nine versions in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, and it has remained a constant countryside favourite for some four hundred years. It is known in America too. A version collected from an Irish girl in Kentucky begins:
Jane was a neighbour for six months or more,
which shows how the words may be jumbled in oral tradition.
Dáithí Sproule composed his own melody for The Death of Queen Jane in 1971. His version was first recorded by the Bothy Band live in Paris in 1978 for their album After Hours, and his website notes nearly 20 recordings by other artists.
Martin Graebe sang Queen Jane at the Golden Fleece in Stroud in the early 2000s. This recording was included in 2005 on the Musical Traditions anthology Songs from the Golden Fleece: A Song Tradition Today.
Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded Death of Queen Jane for their 2006 album Straws in the Wind. Carthy commented in the sleeve notes:
Something about Jane Seymour surely got its hooks into the collective imagination because, apart from Death of Queen Jane, there aren't many songs this sympathetic to actual (as opposed to storybook) royalty. Neither is there a great deal of good feelings towards Henry VIII: he's very much on the sidelines. The song has her dying in the immediate aftermath of birth of her son—which of course makes for the starkest drama—but in fact she died twelve days afterwards: the idea of the [Caesarean] section to assist the birth is not, I think, supported by history.
Jon Boden sang The Death of Queen Jane on October 24, 2010 (the anniversary of Jane Seymour's death) in his project A Folk Song a Day, using Dáithí Sproule's tune. He noted in his blog:
I learnt it from the Bothy Band, although it’s an English song through and through and it’s unusual to come across a sympathetic characterisation of Henry VIII.
Jess and Richard Arrowsmith sang The Death of Queen Jane in 2012 on their CD Customs & Exercise.
Lyrics
Martin Carthy sings Death of Queen Jane
Queen Jane lay in labour full nine days or more
Till the women were so tired, they could stay no longer there,
Till the women were so tired, they could stay no longer there.
“Good women, good women, good women as ye be,
Do you open up my right side to find my baby,
Do you open up my right side and find my baby.”
“Oh no,” says the women, “that never may be,
We will send for King Henry we will hear what he say,
We will send for King Henry and hear what he say.”
King Henry was sent, for King Henry he did come:
“What do ail you, my lady, for your eyes look so dim?
What do ail you, my lady, your eyes look so dim?”
“King Henry, King Henry, will you do one thing for me?
Will you open up my right side and find my baby?
Will you open up my right side and find my baby?”
“Oh no,” says King Henry, “it's a thing I'll never do.
If I lose the flower of England, I shall lose the branch too,
If I lose the flower of England, I'll lose the branch too.”
King Henry went mourning, and so did his men,
And so did the dear baby, Queen Jane did die then,
And so did the dear baby, Queen Jane did die then.
How deep was their mourning, how black were the bands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys that they carried in their hands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys they carried in their hands.
There was fiddling, there was dancing on the day the babe was born,
But poor Queen Jane beloved lay cold as any stone,
But poor Queen Jane beloved lay cold as any stone.
Acknowledgements
Lyrics taken from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, ed. Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd, Penguin, 1959:31, and adapted to the actual singing of Martin Carthy by Garry Gillard.